Grilled haloumi and caramelised apple salad

I could actually eat this for every meal for the rest of my life.  The saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the apple are the ultimate combination.  A sprinkle of cinnamon and a couple of walnuts tops it off.

I grill the haloumi in coconut oil and then caramelise the apple in the juices.  It beats chocolate for a snack any day of the week.

Nigella's Nutella Cheesecake

I contemplated many plans for this weekend but instead decided to stay and do traditional things with my darling girl.  She's certainly keeping me on my toes and requires constant attention and entertainment.

Dessert was never going to be allowed to be time consuming as the small person doesn't have a very long attention span.  She did enjoy watching the biscuits being crushed and the Nutella being combined with the cheese.

It's honestly the easiest and most impressive dessert. EVER!  Highly recommend it.  It's a busy person's dream.  I won't bore you with the instructions as they're freely available on Nigella's website.

Happy and blessed Easter to you all - Hristos Voskrese!

Recipe: grilled salmon with piquillo tapenade

When did it become cool to not know how to cook?  I increasingly meet people who claim they don't have time/energy/money to cook.  Increasingly people have the notion that cooking is only for housewives, whereas I think that everyone should know how to cook some basic recipes.  There's plenty of things that take 20 minutes at the very most (quicker than organising take away) and you know exactly what you're eating.  You can have leftovers for lunch, you can freeze cooked meals for next week or next month.  And if you meal plan and buy exactly what you need you can save a fortune on the already expensive grocery costs.   I'm by no means an amazing cook and I'm as time poor as anyone else, so quick and simple and my mantra.

This tapenade would be delicious with any fish.  The recipe is enough for 4 generous portions.  We usually eat half and freeze the other half for next time.

• 250g grilled peppers/piquillo
• one tomato
• one cucumber
• half a red onion
• one glove garlic
• half a capsicum 
• small chilli
• juice of one lime
• salt and pepper to taste

Whizz with the food processor and voila!  Amazing with a simple green salad as a side.

Easter reflections and a recipe

If I thought that time went by quickly before, it's nothing compared to how quickly it goes now. I barely turn around and it's 4pm. But my head is so clear and my priorities are finally right. I've come to terms with getting nothing done and feeling okay about it. Caring and nurturing an infant is a task unto itself.

This bad boy has been decorating my desk for weeks and I finally cracked him open. And ate him in his entirety, immediately.

And that's my little muffin checking things out.

Of course I needed to bake a cake for Easter. One that could be baked with one hand using ingredients already in the fridge and pantry, so I made something up.

- 150g butter at room temperature
- 100g sugar
- generous tablespoon of honey
- 2 eggs
- 180g almond meal
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup natural yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder

An icing would have been lovely, but this way the cake can be popped into a container and enjoyed for a few days with tea or coffee.

Easter Bread

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year, especially to reflect.  The year always gets off to a flying start so it's a good time to clock up some serious church time and enjoy the long weekend and re-evaluate.  While most of the world rejoices over Easter and the impending warmer and longer days, in Australia we are winding up the summer and all the festivities.

The oven also gets a nice little workout and it warms the house just enough without needing to turn the heating on yet.

I trialled this excellent recipe from Gourmet Traveller (as much as I love that magazine the recipes are often far too difficult to pull off) last year, but didn't get to post it, so I'm sharing it this year.

Using the dough hook on a mixer is the absolute secret for this recipe, the dough ends up incredible.  Even my husband, who is a bread and dough expert was very impressed.

500 gm	(2 2/3 cups) plain flour
21 gm	(3 packets) dried yeast
125 ml	(½ cup) milk
2	eggs, lightly beaten, plus extra for brushing
50 gm	caster sugar
Finely	grated rind of 2 oranges and/or lemons
2 tsp	mahlepi or nutmeg
75 gm	softened butter, coarsely chopped, plus extra to serve

1	Combine flour, yeast and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, form a well in the centre, set aside. Add milk, eggs, sugar, orange rind, nutmeg and 100ml lukewarm water and mix until a soft dough forms (5-7 minutes). Gradually add butter, a little at a time, mixing until a smooth soft dough forms (3-5 minutes), place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in size (approx 1 hour).
2	Red Easter eggs are painted mainly by those of the Orthodox faith as they symbolise Christ's blood.  They can be dyed using dye available to purchase from European delis or traditionally the skins of red onions which are collected since Christmas.
3	Knock back dough and divide into 3 pieces. Roll each piece into a 45cm-long cylinder, plait pieces together, then bring ends together to form a wreath and squeeze to join. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper and set aside to prove slightly (20 minutes).
4	Preheat oven to 180C. Brush wreath with eggwash, gently push red Easter eggs (unpeeled) into wreath and bake until wreath is golden and cooked through (25-30 minutes). Cool on a wire rack, serve with butter. It tastes amazing eaten same day, usually baked early in the morning in time for lunch.

Recipe: Raspberry & Banana Muffins

Isn't life an unpredictable ride?  

I've spent the last 10 years racing through it.  I sit down each January and set goals.  Usually to do with property purchases, pay rises, promotions, a trip to a new destination, something new to study?  More more more, quick quick quick.  

Well not this year.  This year is all about me and my health.  Today was the first day in ages that I didn't HAVE to be in 3 places at once.  And more than ever I'm starting to say no.  Just doing things that make me happy.  I'm winding down some things on the go and January is traditionally the craziest (and the most fun and exciting month) but I need to take better care of myself and draw the line somewhere.

Cooking and exercising and spending time with my amazing husband are top of my list.  I'm also treating myself to a trip to Sydney in February, selling most of my belongings on eBay, going to the country to see the Grace Kelly exhibit in March and going home more often to see my parents.

My heavy duty kitchen mixer died late last year, which almost excited me because I thought that MAYBE it was time to get a KitchenAid.  But it seems not yet.  I fell in love with a beautiful Kenwood which was reduced from $300 to $219.. which then scanned for $129 at the register.  HAPPY!  Which meant some left over money on the voucher for some goodies from Chanel.

I took it for a test mix today and made some raspberry and banana muffins.  The recipe can be altered to just about any sort of muffin.  I usually halve the amount of sugar in recipes, so if you like your muffins sweeter, I have stated the amount of sugar the recipe calls for.

360g plain flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs

150 g caster sugar (recipe calls for 270g)

180g butter

200g sour cream

1 small banana

1 punnet raspberries

Preheat over at 180C.  Sift together the dry ingredients.  Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, then continue to beat while adding the butter, adding in the flour mixture.  Add sour cream and mix for a further 1 minute and fold in the fruit so it doesn't crumble.  Spoon into paper cases and bake for around 15 minutes.  The sour cream is the winning touch in my opinion and these are great frozen and popped in the handbag for a snack during the day.

Recipe: Choc Chip Cookies

It's well past midnight and here I am baking cookies for my colleagues for our Christmas BBQ.  I'm terribly excited as we're "shutting shop" at midday and heading to a nearby park for a BBQ, prawns and champagne.  And it's going to be a warm and sunny day.  Happy!


I got home very late tonight as I went to the ballet (Swan Lake - wish it was Nutcracker), which didn't leave much time for cookie baking.  But I had promised everyone as I left the office.  What's a girl to do!?


These cookies are virtually fool proof and are very soft and fluffy. (provided that you do not overbake them like I did with the first batch tonight) Once lent is over, I'll be baking a round just for me.  It's torture with the smell wafting out of the oven and me surviving on carrot sticks and hummus.  But that's a story for another day.


Ingredients

150g melted, unsalted butter

100g brown sugar

100g caster sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

300g flour (sifted)

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 x 300g choc chips


Preheat the oven to 160C
Whisk butter with sugar 
Add vanilla and eggs
Add flour and bicarb soda and slowly mix
Fold in choc chips and leave to rest in fridge for half an hour
Spoon a heaped table spoon of mixture on baking tray (ensure cookies are spread out as they do rise and expand)
Bake for 13-15 minutes


ENJOY!

Crepe Sunday

One of the first things I learnt to cook was crepes.  If you want to call it cooking.  They are a staple of an Eastern European child's life.  We'd play outside for hours on end and then run to someone's house at dusk for crepes made by their mum.  My favourite filing was plum jam.

There are two versions.  A very dough-y, soft crepe and an almost wafer crisp crepe which I made on Sunday morning for a late breakfast.  The trick is the ratio of milk to water.  The more milk, the crispier the crepe.

I like to beat my batter by hand and rest it in the fridge for about half an hour.

With berries and creme fraiche.  Anything goes though.  Cream.  Mascarpone.  Pistachio nuts.

Cuddles with a tired and sleepy Monty.

Crispy Crepes (recipe makes 6 large crepes)

125g plain flour

2 fresh organic eggs

250ml lukewarm milk

1 tablespoon butter

Combine all ingredients and beat with a hand whisk or electric mixer for 1 minute.  Rest in fridge for at least half an hour.  Voila!

Recipe: Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee is without a doubt my favourite dessert.  When it's my turn to choose a restaurant, I'm always swayed by those that have creme brulee on the menu.

I've recently learnt to make it myself using a very simple Masterchef recipe.  It literally takes about 10 minutes (plus baking and setting).  I recommend making it the night before and leaving it to set overnight.

Remind me to get a torch to caramelize the sugar.  It's just not the same without snapping the caramel with the spoon, is it?

The mixture

Even divided into ramekins

Ready to "bake" with boiling water half way up the ramekins

The finished product - minus the burnt caramel....

Recipe: Sape

I grew up on a very simple repertoire of recipes.  My mum had a menu Monday to Sunday, so each night you knew exactly what you were eating.  But she made fabulous desserts.  I'm sharing a very simple recipe for biscuits, called "sape" (pronounced "sha-peh").

100g sugar

100g hazelnuts or walnuts

170g flour

200g butter

2 whole eggs

Throw all the ingredients together and mix

Grease a tray

Spoon dough into moulds

Depending on your oven bake for 10-20 minutes at 180C

Monty says hello :)

Sprinkle with icing sugar and voila!  Wonderful with tea, coffee or hot chocolate

Wednesday night tales from Hiroshima kitchen

Whenever I decide to cook anything other than a one pot meal in our miniature Barbie sized kitchen B looks at me with horror in his eyes and says "oh no, Hiroshima".  Yes with a couple of things on the bench, the place looks like a disaster and does nothing for my patience and nerves when cooking.

I've not really cooked at all in the past month due to being on holidays, so tonight I decided to make spinach and ricotta cannelloni - from scratch using Oliver's pretty simple recipe.  Recipe is simple only if you chop the spinach up really fine.  Stuffing the pasta with chunky bits of spinach is not easy!

I also put my ebelskiever to use!  Love a treat that takes about 3 minutes to make using pancake mix.

Vegan delights...

With Christmas lent well and truly underway, I am feeling fantastic.  No animal product consumption agrees with me and I'm waking up in the morning without an alarm clock.  My favourites to cook and eat...

Vegetable relish.. Brown an onion and some garlic in vegetable oil and add finely diced capsicum, tomato, eggplant, mushroom.. anything you like and reduce it with some salk, pepper, vegeta and paprika on medium heat for around 20 minutes.  Served hot with mash potato or rice...  I virtually eat variations of it daily!

Corn bread.  2 cups polenta, 1 cup plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder  Combined with 2 cups of soy milk and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.  I like to add a teaspoon of tea and 3 table spoons of sugar.

Ahead or behind?

One could say I'm a season behind.. while another could say I'm a season ahead.  Let me tell you why.

Last week, on my way home from work, I found myself at Zomp shoes... looking at boots.  Even though the following day was forecast to be 29C/84.5F!  If I need anything in Melbourne it's coats and boots, yet I struggle to justify spending good amounts on either.  Go figure!  I had identified a need for flat, rubber soled, leather boots many winters ago but couldn't find a perfect pair, until I stumbled upon these at 70% off the original price.  My footwear for next winter is solved, yet I still haven't found new summer sandals that I so need.  And wouldn't you know it, within 24 hours the temperature halved and it rained.  Love my new boots.

I also made use of the cool weather to do some cooking.  A rare luxury for me.  Considering the number of commitments that I've taken on this year, having a few spare hours to cook more than a stir fry makes me happy!  I made Krofne aka Serbian donuts.  Although mine didn't turn out as fluffy and light as Dragana's or my mum's.  They can be eaten sweet (sprinkled with sugar or nutella or jam) or savory with cheese spreads.